Umbrella handle with snap-locked, substantially concealed carrying ring

Claim 1

An umbrella with an elongated round handle having at its bottom end a C-shaped carrying ring which pivots between open and closed positions, snap-locks in the closed position, and is substantially when closed but has a portion which extends radially just beyond the handle outline to facilitate snapping the ring away from its closed position, comprising: an umbrella body including a folding canopy, folding ribs supporting the canopy and a center pole having an upper end which supports the ribs and canopy; an elongated handle having a round sidewall and a bottom, said handle being secured to the lower end of the center pole to extend downwardly therefrom and substantially coaxially therewith, a C-shaped ring having bent-in free ends, and means for pivotally securing the ring to the lower end of the handle, and abutting means for limiting the pivotal range of the ring, whereby said ring is manually movable between a closed position, in which the ring is substantially coaxial with the handle and a substantial portion of the ring arc is substantially flush with the handle sidewall but a portion of the ring extends radially outwardly of the handle sidewall, and an open position, in which the ring axis ranges from being about parallel to being about perpendicular to the handle axis; said means for pivotally securing the ring to the handle comprising a pair of oppositely facing wells which are defined adjacent the handle bottom portion, said bottom portion being integrally formed, said wells being substantially coaxial with the axis of the bent-in free ends of the C-shaped ring and being shaped and dimensioned to receive freely the bent-in ends of the C-shaped ring and to allow rotational motion of said bent-in ends within the wells as the ring pivots about said pivot axis and linear motion thereof along the well axis when the bent-in ends of the ring are forced apart to increase the ring diameter, wherein said pivot axis is immediately adjacent a tangent to the handle sidewall and is offset from the handle axis; snap-locking means comprising a circumferential flange at the bottom of the handle defining a C-shaped circumferential groove which is substantially coaxial with the handle and matches the outline of the C-shaped ring and receives a substantial portion of the ring arc, but not the entire arc, to make the ring outline substantially flush with the handle sidewall, when the ring is in its closed position; and said ring and snap-locking means being shaped and dimensioned to cause substantially less than the entire arc of the ring to make contact with the flange when the ring is being moved into or away from the closed position, and to cause a portion of the ring arc to extend radially outwardly of the handle sidewall when the ring is in the closed position, to thereby facilitate moving the ring from its closed to its open position by pushing down on the portion thereof which extends beyond the handle while retaining the appearance that the ring in the closed position is substantially flush with the handle sidewall.